Friday, July 25, 2014

The days have been warm and sunny, the nights cool and breezy. The summer has been good to us. Perfect weather for getting outside in the garden to work, then dawdle, then work a bit more.

Coreopsis

I was wandering around early one morning when I realized that, in summer, my garden is all about attracting the birds and the bees and the butterflies.

African Blue Basil

The bees love my basil and I've planted several varieties for them to enjoy since I keep picking the flowers off the sweet basil so there will be an abundance of it for pesto making in late August.

The purple coneflowers in the back round pull in the American Goldfinches. All summer they stop by to check on the progress of the seed pods. Then in the fall they keep coming to eat until they have exhausted the supply of seeds.

My 'Carefree Rose' holds court in the center of the herb garden, and is finally acclimated to the move. And ready for a close-up this morning!

Just as he was purported to do in life, Francis stands so still that the birds often land on his head to rest. He is almost hidden in the lobelia, but the doves and the cardinals know where he is.

The sunny garden has been handed over to the hummingbirds and butterflies. There is sage, monarda, honeysuckle, lantana, butterfly bush and trumpet vine along with the lobelia to lure them into my world.

Bee Balm or Monarda

Trumpet Vine

And of course, what hummingbird garden is complete without this aggressive climber - a trumpet vine.

Cuphea

Last year we discovered this plant, an annual called the 'cigar plant' or cuphea while we were hunting for herbs at the Peconic River Herb Farm. The hummingbirds were crazy for it at the farm. So, of course, we HAD to get some this year. I'm delighted to report that we've had a male hummingbird visiting us at least twice a day for the past two weeks and he visits every nectar plant in the garden before moving on!

Coleus - center stage in the shade

I have fallen in love with coleus For the shadier garden spots. It is an easy-going annual that can add a real pop of color in mid-summer when the shade plants are mostly green. The best part of coleus is this. I can take cuttings at the end of summer, root it, grow it in the sunroom all winter, then move it outside to live in the ground all summer.

Two varieties of Coleus - there are so many to choose from

I am also spending a bit of time each day harvesting and drying herbs and flowers for use all winter. Iam collecting chamomile, calendula and St. John's Wort flowers to make a lovely skin cream once I have enough flowers. More on that another time. And I pull weeds for an hour or two every now and then.
But mostly what I do is stop to smell the roses, write in my garden journal and
indulge in midsummer daydreaming!

My treehouse

Finally, when the mosquitoes arrive, it is time to retreat to my own private treehouse. I was trying to get a bug's eye view of the sky with the bee balm in the picture, when I suddenly noticed my sunroom in the back round. Nice view looking in or out!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Weeding at six forty-five
A.M. and already
I am perspiring.
Little rivers tickle down my back and face, mixing with the citronella I
bathed in, before venturing into mosquito territory. There is a sparrow
singing
in the cherry tree, serenading early risers. I sweat and remind
myself that all this bending will keep me young, allegedly. I spot
a dragonfly
on the bee balm
right next to my leg.
Breath skips out
of me. Now
he flies,
spins,
thin
as a
whis
per,
land
ing
on a
shoe,
resting
from
what
ever it
is a
dra
gon
fly
d
o
e
s
!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

My life is so full these days, I barely have time to write about it. A few family obligations have stepped in the way of my writing time to some extent and this blog has been neglected while I kept a few other balls in the air, so to speak.

The truth is, I have been doing some writing, but it has been mostly poetry. Much of it is on my poetry blog here :wabi sabi poems and images and lately, on Facebook too. I was delighted to have several of my short poems published over the past few months including these two haiga.

These appear in the current issue of Prune Juice, a journal of senryu and kyoka .

My garden is blooming and I am so blessed to have a wonderful peaceful backyard where I can work up a sweat pulling weeds and meditating on the beauty all around me. I am one of those people who communes with the trees and the birds and even the bees. In the garden, I feel close to the Creator.

I have a wrap-around view from my sunroom of the entire garden so even when the mosquitoes are biting, I can enjoy it.

In the sunny area we've planted an array of flower magnets with lots of nectar and seeds to attract the hummingbirds, gold finches, butterflies and bees too.

Above you can see the blue salvia - sure to bring in the hummingbirds ....

as will the monarda.........

also called bee balm!

Day lilies add so much joy and color to one area and each variety feels like an old friend.

This hydrangea loves its shady spot and, with the ferns and astilbe, it brightens up the mostly green fern garden.

I have begun harvesting herbs. Today the kitchen smelled of lemon verbena. I dry this wonderful herb to flavor my teas.

Chamomile has seeded itself willy-nilly throughout the garden - I welcome these cuties especially since they make a wonderful sleep tea AND I add them to my hand cream and ointment recipe. Chamomile is a lovely healing herb found in many natural skin care products on the market.

The herb garden, moved to its new sunny location, is thriving. The African Basil plant pictured above (purple flowers) wintered over very successfully in my sunroom and took off as soon as I planted it outdoors in the spring.

The summer weather has been good to us so far - not too much humidity. The plants look so healthy this year- not as stressed as usual. The humans are loving it too!

My plans for the rest of July include:

* Keeping up with the weeds and the herb harvest.

* Early morning walks with the Admiral, who is recovering from surgery.

* Making photos and poems as a way of writing the joy I feel in the natural world around me.